


The Ridge and More

by HillandGlen



Category: Outlander (TV), Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:53:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24111616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HillandGlen/pseuds/HillandGlen
Summary: When Jamie and Claire are no more, and the children of them have gone, the Ridge lives on and lives are led.  These are just some of them.
Comments: 14
Kudos: 35





	1. Watching from the Porch

Ian Fraser Murray, sat on the porch of the old cabin, he was the last of the first settlers on the Ridge, at almost 100, he had seen the Ridge from brush and twig shelter, through to a cabin, to a settlement and a two big houses, right through to the town that now sat below him.  
He had lived in this cabin, since he had come back from the Revolution war, with Rachel his wife, and he had built it for her, and it had been their home for this time. Rachel was sleeping under the cairn he had built her with his own hands twenty years ago. He was sure that some day soon he would be joining her.  
Now his granddaughter Ellen and her family lived here with him. Ellen was his eldest son Oggy’s girl, and when she had married just after Rachel died, she and her husband Harry Beardsley had moved in with him. He had not wanted to admit it, but he was glad they had. He missed Rachel sorely and he was not getting any younger, or so he had thought at the time.  
Harry had extended the cabin as the children had come along, although Rachel and he had brought all six children up in within the six rooms of the cabin, which when he had originally built it had only be two. But he was glad of the extension now, he had a bedroom downstairs, so his old knees did not have to labour up the stairs anymore.  
He still could tell from the faces and builds of even the youngest inhabitants, who and which were from the Fraser, the Mackenzie’s, the Murray, the Beardsley’s, families, although many like Ellen, had married another of the founding families, and the genes ran through them from both families.  
There were many red-haired descendants from his Uncle Jamie and Auntie Claire, and green-eyed Mackenzie’s still. Many with the aristocratic bearing of William Fraser, or the French flare of Fergus Fraser.  
Those with the wild feral look of the Beardsley twins, who had shared everything even their wife, the gentle Lizzie.  
And many, who looked out from his Da’s eyes and were as fiery as his ma.  
But all the ones he had made his life here with were gone now. All the ones he had come here to make that life with, the ones who had cut down the trees and tamed the land. The ones that had built the town and fought through the war with.  
And now as he watched, he saw his youngest two Grandsons, Simon, and John, load up their horses.  
For Simon and John, were going west, the lure of adventure that had run through himself, and his Uncle Jamie, ran through these two boys. Carla, their mother, her black eyes full of worry watched them as Mac his elder grandson, Janet’s’ boy, her husband brought out the boys saddlebags.  
Mac had gone wandering in his time, he had gone far north to find what was left of the Mohawk, and stayed for four winters with them he had returned with Carla great granddaughter of Bird who sings in the morning. She came and sat beside him.  
“Granda Ian, how did you let Christian go” she asked of him. Christian his and Rachels youngest son, who had left to go to Louisiana, and had never come back, word had come of his death from Indians six years later.  
“I had to let him go lass, couldna keep a wandering spirit like that, I was the same, and I missed my family, but it never stopped me wandering, not till I met Rachel, then she became the anchor that kept me here. One day if they are lucky, your boys will find one as well. Mac, he found ye didne” he said with a smile  
Carla took his hand. “This family have always had its travellers” she said with a wobbly smile. And he thought, about the travellers that only Ian knew of now. None had been to the stones for a great while now, and none had come from them.  
He wondered if he would see another in his lifetime, he remembered watching Felicite go, and She and Christopher her husband came back. They had built the hospital. A hospital they said would be needed for yet another war, in just a few more years.  
That hospital was a teaching hospital now, stood in the centre of town and Felicite and Christopher were gone too, Buddy their son still ran the hospital.  
Only Frankie Mackenzie and Laoghaire Fraser Grant were left of Uncle Jamie’s Grandchildren, and only he of the generation before.  
But there were many many more of the generations after.


	2. Hero's and Heroine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suppertime

Auld Ian reached for his stick and went to stand. Carla helped him to his feet. “You want to go in Granda" she asked.  
“Aye, tis none so warm yet of an evening" the old man said “ And I ken I want my hearth"  
Taking Carla's arm on one side and using his stick on the other Auld Ian went into the warm kitchen. It smelt of warm bread and parritch. He settles in his chair and closes his eyes, the bustle of the kitchen goes on around him, and as he drifts off to sleep he can hear his Rachel  
“Get thee out from under the table dog" she was scolding  
Auld Ian smiled in his sleep, and Ellen noticing picks up the plaid from the bench and tucks it around him.  
“Rollo out, I need to sweep the floor" Rachel pushed the big dog with the broom and a giggle was heard.  
“Rollo are thee giggling at me?” Rachel said severely “I will have thee out from under the table whether they giggle or nay" she admonished.  
“Woof” said a small voice  
“Ah so thee does speak" she said and crouched down  
Wee Rabbie Higgins hid behind the big dog, who lay totally disregarding the child.  
“And where did thee come from" Rachel asked in mock surprise  
“Wiv Uncle Ian, I snucked in" Rabbie answered.  
“And ye can snuck out again" Ian said and grabbed the wee laddie and swinging him upside down.  
“ I can hear her Mam calling ye, time for yer supper" he laughed as Rabbie squealed and Rachel admonished him.  
“Thee will make the boy Ill holding him upside down” Rachel said  
Ian dropped him outside the door and sent him on his way down the trail.

A dogs bark, brought auld Ian back from his dreams, and his eyes opened. Harry and young Jake, Ellen’s youngest child sat on the settle opposite him. Jake’s hair was as flaming red as Jemmy Mac's had been. You could see it in the sunlight, a far across the Ridge.  
He looked around, but the of course, the dog he heard wasne Rollo, and the child voice had been Jake, nay Rabbie. The years and the generations seemed to slide from one t'another now. Some were clear as day though. Seemingly the further away they were the clearer they were.  
There weren’t Scots accents anymore, and nay gaelic spoken. Athough Alistair Murray, his brother Jamie's Great Grandson had been here last year. He had come from Lallybroch, the youngest son, and nay enough land left now to support more than one family, Alistair came looking for his fortune. It had been good to hear the Scots spoken again. When he closed his eyes, he could be sitting on that auld broken branch, looking down at his Ma's sheep, listening to his Da talk. Alistair had the same soft measured tones. It had been a long time since his Da had gone.  
Ellen’s voice broke through his revelry again and she brought him his supper. Good beef broth and oat cakes. He still had most of his teeth. That came from his Auntie Claire, feeding him green things and making him clean them everyday.  
Christopher Grant had taken a few out, not long after Rachel died. He had drunk a bit to much of the whisky with his cousin William that night. Two of them, acting like a couple of Bairns and tried dancing. Christ he had been night on 80 and William over 70, what had they been thinking. Fallen a cracked his cheek and broken his teeth. Ahh Ellen had given him what for, his Ma was strong in that class. That’s when she and Harry had moved in. Newlyweds they had been. He'd told them, that they didn’t want to live with an auld un like he. But Ellen had just ignored him and soon the auld cabin was alive again.  
William, ah the first time they had met. Telling that story had caused a few generations of laughter. The snake in the privy was a story that was now legend. Then when he had won Rachel. But in all the years since, it was William, the soldier who had become his closest friend. The one he didn’t have to explain things too. He missed him too, gone four years since.  
Ellen took the bowl from him, and Jake came to sit beside him “Granda Ian, tell me the story of the war dance" the child asked.  
Auld Ian smiled. “Which one laddie" he asked  
“ The one you did before you went to save the Queen" Jake said eyes shining bright.  
Auld Ian could feel the grass spring below his feet again, as he spread the paint across his face. He had stood and faced the burning cross on top of the bluff. And felt the rhythm of dance go through his body.  
The war that he had felt, that ended in evil men dead and the Queen brought home.  
Was now just a story of good and evil. Of heroes and a heroine, but then it had been of rage and hatred and death. And love a strength and deliverance.  
“Come now Jake, Granda is getting tired. Harry will help you to your bed" Ellen said shaking her head at her son, as he asked for another story.  
“Another time" Auld Ian said as Harry took his arm and led him away. Ellen watched him go, and wondered how long, they would have this most cherished man in their midst.


	3. Talking in the Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ian and Roger, of things to come.

Auld Ian never slept the night through any more, it came with age that he needed to rise to make water at least twice in the night. Now he lay in the dark hearing Jakes’ quiet snores in the room above.   
His mind went back to another small boys’ snores. Before he had a bairns of his own. Roger Mac and he had taken wee Jem hunting with the. Now Roger Mac was never much of a shot, Bree did most of their hunting. But at eight months pregnant Roger had said nay, it was him to go with Ian, and they would take wee Jem as well.  
So, they had gone and even Roger had got a turkey this time. Jem had been so excited, and they had sat that night and dressed and roasted it over the fire, and Wee Jem had fallen asleep in his Da’s lap, And while he slept, Ian had asked of Roger, things that would come to be.  
Roger Mac, had told him, of the decimation of the Indians and the taking of their lands. How the whites would push forward over the mountains, and of the war that would come. The colour of your skin would still matter in the time at which Roger and Bree had come back. But that there would still be people that would fight to change that.  
Of horseless carriages, that the vrooms he Roger whittled really , of great iron things called trains all with wheels and steam, that would pull huge carriages all over this land.   
He had known these come in his own lifetime. Had not his own son Christian ridden in one such thing, and sent letters to tell of it. There would be boats that would have huge wheels and would ply the rivers and the great lakes.  
Of the buildings that would reach to the sky, and the metal birds call airplanes that would take people from Scotland to America in hours not weeks.   
He had looked at Roger in wonderment. Oh, to be able to fly in one of them. He could have seen his Da more than once more. Of the ship that went to the moon and back, he could not comprehend at all. To go so high.  
Of the wars that would take the World to the brink, not once but twice. Of the things one human would do to another in the name of those wars. Of the terrible things that would be done by one human to another in those wars.   
All the time Roger had spoken that night, Ian had heard the sleeping child gently snore and wished so greatly that he could have gone through those stones to see such things. What would he have done if he had been in such a time?  
As he lay there in his bed, he wondered what Fergus’s Germain might have seen now, and what time he was. Germain had bidden his family goodbye at 21, and taken his trip through the stones. He had never come back. His sister Felicite had looked for him the year 2000 when she had gone, but she had found nay sign, not in the past, none at Lallybroch had seen him, nor at the Ridge of the future. Had he nay made it back through the stones again? For that had nay been his first foray into the future. Fergus and Marsali had feared as much he knew.   
The fact that Fergus’s children could travel as Auntie Claire and the Mackenzie’s could, had come out, after the end of the Revolutionary War, When Percy Beuchamp had come to the Ridge looking for Fergus. The truth of Fergus’s parentage and the fact of what Fergus was had been revealed then.   
Fergus and Marsali had not been able to contain Germain and the lad had first gone at 17, slipping away from the Ridge as soon as he knew. He had come back two years later. A boy no longer, battered and bruised. He had been in that first great war, in those trenches, in that mud and noise.   
And there he had found love with a young nurse, but she had been gone when he had searched for her after, so broken hearted he had come home. But never settled and had gone again, to search again for his Julia Lambert. Maybe he had found her, he always hoped that he had.   
Auld Ian closed his eyes again, mayhappen he would sleep again before the dawn came.


	4. Lizzie's advice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lizzie and William have a chat behind the chicken coop.

“Granda Ian” said Harry coming into the kitchen “I’m to take you up the Fraser House, Felicite wants to check you over and Beth wants to have you a shower”   
Auld Ian grumbled “Shower were these women never to leave him in peace?”  
“Aye well you tell them that, I’m not” Harry replied with a laugh. “You know damn well that there is no telling a Ridge woman”  
Auld Ian reached for his moccasins “Aye, you should have marrit a nice Quaker lass like I did” Auld Ian told Harry as he took his arm and went through the door and down the steps.  
“I remember Grannie Rachel remember, she might have been a Quaker, but she was not quiet” Harry said as they got to the bottom of the steps.  
“I’m nay goan in that contraption, I dinna care what our Felicite says” Ian stood stock still.   
“Aye ye are, and I’m no be having any arguing” The doctor herself said coming down the path. Ian looked mutinously at his niece. It still confused him, that Fergus’s daughter was now younger than his own Granddaughter, but then their had always been some, out of their generation.   
Felicite took the handles of the wheelchair, she had got Donald Lyle to fashion her one, when they had opened the Hospital, they were known of course by now, but there had been none on the Ridge.   
“I am nay a bairn” Ian glared at her.  
“Nay but ye will be a hundred in two months’ time, and that climb up the hill is no for ye anymore” Felicite could glare back as much. God she was like her Mother.   
With much disgrace he slumped down into the chair.   
“Put your feet up” Felicite dais with patience of the auld man.   
“Beth is going to give ye a shower, and ye have clean clothes ready, wee Clara McGillivray has made ye a new woolly jumper, this wind will be getting on yer chest if not.” Felicite said ignoring his bad mood.  
“I dinna want a shower, I’m just fine with a wash” Auld Ian complained. “I dinna want to be seen in the altogether by my great granddaughter.”   
“Ian, Beth is a nurse, she has seen plenty of men in the altogether, and you are having a shower. Ye cant get in and out of the bath now, and that brand new shower, Jem MacKenzie put in for his Uncle Frankie will be doing you as well.” Felicite, ignored the Auld Mans complaining and pushed him on up the path, singing one of what Auld Ian called, those new-fangled songs.   
Beth Grey Fraser came out to meet them, and raised one red eyebrow at her great great uncle.   
“And are we of a pleasant disposition this morning, Uncle Ian?” she asked sweetly.   
Beth was as red haired as an MacKenzie, but as fine and delicate as her Great grandmother Lizzie Wemyss, the lass favoured her as well, in the face he thought.   
“Well I was when I opened my eyes this morn, I’m no as sure now” he muttered as Beth helped him into the house and through to what was still Felicite surgery. He remember when Auntie Claire stood in front of that desk, looking in her microscope.   
Where one of the beds had been was now the confounded shower, he scowled at it.   
Beth raised that eyebrow again, and gave him a no-nonsense look.   
Aye he had seen that before, He sat down to take his socks off, and remembered seeing it on Lizzies face. He had come around the corner of the Big House, behind the chicken coop, Lizzie was there with William, not long after William had arrived back with John Cinnamon.   
“Its unnatural” William had been saying in revulsion.  
“Why because it is different, aye, because the bible says its no to be done, well tosh t’ the bible, A lot around here say that my marriage is no right, does that make me and my lads, and my bairns unnatural, wrong” Lizzie had been right in William’s face.  
“No, of course not” William had said shaking his head.  
“Aye, people love who they love” Lizzie had said quietly.  
“But Papa, he loved Mama Isobel, how can he now love, well if that is what it is” William had said coldly.  
“Aye, I’m sure yer Papa cared for ye Mama Isobel, but fer as long as I have known him, he loved Jamie Fraser” Lizzie had said outright.  
“What” Don’t be ridiculous” William had said  
“I’m no being ridiculous, it was as plain as the look on his face” Lizzie had said stoutly  
William had looked at Lizzie astounded, then realisation had come over his face  
“Does Mother Claire know, do you think?” he had said in a hushed voice  
Lizzie had nodded, “Aye and has always been verra kind of him because of it” she had replied  
William had sat down hard on a unturned barrel. “Since I was a boy, you think?” he had asked,  
“Well I think you must ask ye Papa, if ye think it is any of yer business.” Lizzie said gently.  
“And my friend?” William had said.  
“Yer Papa, from all I have seen, has been verra lonely, like my Da was until Monika came along. He had held on to the love her had for my Ma, just like your Papa, and now maybe its time for him to have someone for himself.”  
“But if people, find out about Papa and John , will they not run them out of town.” William looked worried  
“Aye well, they never ran me and my lads out, I would think Jamie Fraser and the reverend would have something to say if they had tried. As long as they are no flaunting it, well then, I would think, they will be left well alone. John Cinnamon, he could well just be your Papa’s manservant, tis only what yer Papa would have anyway.” Lizzie had said  
William nodded slowly.   
“Right then Mr William, you take yourself off for a walk, till you have things right in e r head, then go make yer peace with yer Papa, just ye go remembering, tis take all sorts to make this world.” Lizzie had patted his arm, then had picked up her egg basket and quietly carried on collecting eggs. 

Auld Ian could see now that same look that Lizzie had given William in 1779, as Beth was giving him now. Just how did that look not get diluted down the years he didna know.   
Giving up, he let the Nurse help him into the shower.   
“Uncle Frankie, will be waiting in the parlour when we are done, he has the good whisky waiting for you” Beth promised him with a smile.   
That cheered Auld Ian up. He liked a blether with his nephew. Even if he was a wee bit religious fer his liking.


	5. Getting Clean

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frankie and Auld Ian get a shower

Frankie was waiting in the parlour for Auld Ian, a whisky poured in a glass ready for him.  
“Did they make ye have a shower too” Frankie asked his Uncle  
“Aye, those lasses are worse than your Grannie Claire for y’all being clean” Auld Ian grumbled  
“Well sit yourself down, a whisky will make you feel better” Frankie told him.   
Auld Ian settled himself into a chair, the fire was warm, and he picked up the whisky. “I remember your Grannie dunking you in the laundry cauldron, after the wash was done once” he said with a laugh.  
“When I don’t remember that?” Frankie said frowning  
“Nay well ye were probably nay older than three or four. Ye, Oggy and two of the Beardsley boys had decided to paint yerselves like the Indians. But ye had gone into yer Mams studio and had found ye mams oil paints, God ye were covered in it” Auld Ian wheezed with laughter  
“Ye Granda found yer behind Monika and Joseph Wemyss old place, ye ken the one Joanna Wemyss lived in.” Auld Ian told him.  
“Aye the children wont go near that place, they swear its haunted.” Frankie said   
“Ach nay, its just that Joanna was a bit on the lonesome side, didna like the children about, so she told then that” Auld Ian said with a grin.  
“Aye she was a bit frightening too.” Frankie admitted.   
“Aye well so would you have been with 11 brothers and nay a sister in sight. How Lizzie kept them all in order I will never ken, but keep them she did” Auld Ian said sagely “but it put Auld Joanna off men fer life”  
“Anyway, why did Grannie Claire put us in the laundry cauldron. “ Frankie went back to their original reminiscence.   
“Well, when yer Granda found ye, it was in yer hair and all. He took yer all to the creek, tried t’ clean ye up before yer Mother saw ye. Yer Dad saw ye all on the way, and came away with all ye, they tried soap root and sand, which got it off yer bodies, but they didna want to rub yer faces to much. Anyway, at that point they decided that they needed more help, so they went to the back of Fraser House, thought they could sneak in and swipe some of yer Grannies Shampoo and soap. But yer Grannie caught yer Granda, and my Ma was just finishing supervising the laundry out the back. So, yer Grannie dumped ye all in. “ Auld Ian explained.   
“So, everyone was trying to get us clean?” Frankie asked   
“Oh Aye, without yer mam knowing. But in all the cleaning, naybody had thought about, just where ye had go the paint, and just what state ye had left yer Mam’s studio” Auld Ian was chuckling.  
“Well, we heard yer Mam from the Fraser house, and we weren’t done with cleaning yer all. We couldn’t get it out of yer hair.” Auld Ian continued  
“Yea Mam was shouting ang a going, yer Dad thought he better go see if he could calm her down. But halfway down the trail, he saw yer sister running one way and yer brother the other, and decided to take their advice and stay out of it” Auld Ian told him.  
“Sensible man my Da” Frankie laughed  
“Aye, yer Granda, he decided that it was a women thing to sort as well, and grabbed some fishing poles and chased after yer brother to the creek. Yer Mam came stormin up the trail, and ye and Oggy and Eddie Beardsley didna ken to hide in the cauldron, or get out and run. Yer Grannie and my Mam, they stood in front of it, but Brianna, well she had spotted the four of ye. Hair all colours like a rainbow.” By now Auld Ian was chortling  
“She had ye all out. Tearing a strip off all of ye. The four of ye were crying up a storm” Auld Ian continued  
“ Rachel, she came down at all the stramash, and went into the house and came out with Grannies shears. She just handed them to Brianna, stopping them in her tracks” Auld Ian took a swig of his whisky.  
“Brianna had taken the shears, then asked Rachel what they were for” He told Frankie.  
“To shear them, thee will not get that out of their hair” Rachel had said.  
“Well that stopped the stramash and Brianna thought that was funny” Auld Ian said  
“So how did Mam get the paint out” Frankie asked  
“Ah well, she sheared it y’all off of course. The four of you, then sent you home to bed with no tea. And sent the Beardsley lads home with yer Grannie Claire, said she could deal with Lizzie as she had tried to cover up fer y’all. Grannie had tried to say it was yer Granda and Da, that had tried first, and she said that was fine, cos yer Granda and Da could clean out the cauldron, but only when it had started to dry a bit, so they would have to scrape it” Both the elderly men were in fits of laughter by then.   
“And did they” Frankie asked when he could eventually speak  
“Oh Aye, a Fraser woman with their dander up is not one to cross. Both yer Da and Granda kent what as good for them” Auld Ian said holding his side.  
“What is going on in here” Beth said coming in. “oh you do look clean and tidy” she said smiling then looked at them in amazement as both men exploded with laughter, until Felicite came in convinced that one or both of them were expiring.   
Auld Ian was still giggling when Beth got him back into the wheeled chair and back down the trail.


	6. MacKenzies

It was lovely to just sit; Ellen had brought him down to sit on the porch on the Big House. He did not like to go to church, had not done since he first went to the Mohawk. And of course, Rachel had been a Quaker, and she had held her meetings in the room beside the school room. But from here, he could hear the singing.   
Roger Mac had built the church, right beside the Big House, some of the youngsters call the Big House, the Church house now, but it will always be the Big House to him. Of course, it was not the original one, Uncle Jamie had built for Auntie Claire, that had been burnt down.   
This one Roger Mac and Brianna had built when they came back. He looked up as the church doors opened and people came out, children tumbling before them. He could see names and faces from then, some where a real mixture of families, some, had the straight black hair of the Bird tribe.   
A child ran towards him, blue coat, and red hair, and he remembered chasing a child such as he, way before he had met Rachel, and Rollo still with him. Jem MacKenzie, had been gone ten years now, and Annie his wife long before, in childbirth with their only child Connie. The child running before him was Connie’s grandchild, the image of his warrior ancestor.   
Jem had taken Connie and gone to the stones after Annie had died, could not face staying here. It had broken his parents hearts, but they understood he had to go. Had stayed away twenty five years, then had appeared walking in one day, with Connie and her bairn Jamie. A plague was in their time, so they had come back. Brianna was still living to see him, although Roger Mac had been gone by then and Frankie MacKenzie was reading the sermons. Brianna had welcomed him home and seen Young Jamie MacKenzie grow to be ten before she had gone to lie beside Roger at the burying place.   
Jamie MacKenzie as tall as Uncle Jamie had been, but had Roger Mac’s green eyes. Connie had never spoke of his father, just saying in the time they had come from, it was not unusual to have a child alone, and anyway had she not her Da to help. They had lived at Lallybroch, all the that time he knew, a Lallybroch the same but different he guessed. Jem MacKenzie had spent his time, in that time, becoming an engineer, like his Mam.   
He had continued here when he got back, Connie, now Connie had been Grandmother all over, always a building things. Had been to collage like her Grannie as well. Between Jem and Connie, the Ridge had expanded. She had married late, to one of Aiden MacCallum’s sons, a widower without any children. Company, Auld Ian often wondered,  
And Jamie Mac, had not married till he was twenty-nine. Went off to the University in Raleigh first, then coming back and working with Jem and his Mam, He was involved in trying to get the railroad here. . He had married Mhari Buchan, four years ago now, the young red headed boy throwing a ball to a dog was their son, Xander.  
Of the three of Roger Mac and Brianna’s children, only Frankie stayed close at hand. Amanda, well she came and went, sometimes taking a younger generation with her, sometimes bringing a traveller back with her. She brought back news of some of those that went before, and after her. Some things she would never tell, somethings she would, She was here when her Da passed, but not when her Mam did. Once then when she came back, she was hollowed eyed and broken hearted, and stayed a while that time. But the pull came again and off she would go. She had finally come back and stayed just after Jem had come back, had fled the plague to Lallybroch to find him gone, so flowed him back through the stones. She had then spent her time writing, a book that was not to be read till the year 2000, it was locked now in the church vault. She had only lived four years after coming back. Felicite, had said the travelling had strained her heart too much.   
Frankie now, as good at preaching a sermon as his Da, so they said, and married young to Star Bird, had a brood of six children, most of them dark as Star, but some with the green flashing eyes of the Mackenzie’s. Star sat now on the bottom step of the Big House, surrounded by children and Grandchildren. Frankie came out of the church, leaning on the arm of Jerry MacKenzie, his second son, tall and dark like his siblings, was the latest Mackenzie to preach in the church. Brian, his eldest son had gone to be a solider, appearing now and then. His daughters were scattered across the Ridge. Two, Clare and Elspeth were mountain nurses, doing the trails to the cabins to far from the hospital. Their Great Grandmother would be proud of them. Donna the youngest was the schoolteacher for the younger children, education was good on the Ridge, better than most other places. Vivi, Frankie’s youngest, was a shy young thing, who still lived at home, looking after Frankie and Star.   
Auld Ian wondered if Jem and Mandy would have been happier, if like Frankie, they could not have travelled, whether they would have been better spending their whole lives here on the Ridge. He shrugged to himself, probably not, the wanderlust was in the Fraser Family, way before the travelling became part of them, Just look at his Uncle Jamie and he, himself, no going through time, but no sitting still either.


End file.
